


White Flag

by RegicidalRavens



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: All is good, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Military, Ambush, Burns, F/M, Gore, It's Okay, Kinda, Military, Near Death, Soft Ending, War, War AU, you're safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19429042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RegicidalRavens/pseuds/RegicidalRavens
Summary: Oikawa Tooru should've known what would happen as war rolled around.But what happened instead was the closest he had ever come to regretting his usually frivolous behavior.





	White Flag

“Hey, dumbass. Calm down for a bit!”

The plea fell on deaf ears. Oikawa continued to run around the encampment in a frenzy, checking the faces of all the bodies he saw and irritation gradually rising. Iwaizumi could only offer the fellow soldiers a solemn nod in passing as he trailed behind. The two had combed through well over half the area already, and the familiar face was yet to be found. Each passing second had Oikawa’s blood running a little colder.

To be precise, it was you who had been missing. While trying to regroup the whole battalion, the two noticed that they hadn’t seen you anywhere. Even the nurses and your coworkers in the medical ward who were busy running around treating patients let him know that there was no sign nor word of you as of yet.

And now, Oikawa was regretting himself. How he had begun to pester you from day one of joining camp, and how that was all he could bring himself to do. How he would flirt endlessly whenever he payed you a visit in the infirmary, and you would just scoff and let him know that he was wasting your time.

He regretted how just hours before their camp was bombarded, he was pacing outside your office and wondering if he should finally ask for your time over the weekend—he may not have been your boss, but he considered himself high up enough and overflowing with enough charm that he could pull some strings with the medical staff if he needed to do so. But right now, he regretted that he couldn’t even bring himself to do that much.

He took long strides and turned a corner, scanning the people who were scattered along the path.

If he couldn’t find you, he would regret that his last memory of your face had your eyebrows knit with worry. He remembered how on that day he teased you saying, “My dear (Y/n)-chan is treating me so gently. How kind!” but your expression remained flat, your fingers working deftly to wrap up the bandages encasing his knee.

As the both of them continued to make their way around the remainder of the injured and dead, he felt his hands begin to shake. Oikawa clenched his hands into fists, and quickly blinked away the moisture gathering in his eyes.

He prayed that if he did find you, you would be in one piece, heart still beating.

“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi’s gruff voice was met with silence. “I… maybe—“

He was cut off.

“ _No!_ No. No… There is no maybe. (Y/n) has to be alive!” He snatched the cap off his head and threw it into the dirt. Others around him stared, some whispering amongst themselves as they watched their commander throw a fit. Iwaizumi plucked it off the ground and dusted the loose dirt from it. But he made no move as he saw fresh tears stream down Oikawa’s face, some of the fluid mixing with mud caked bruises and cuts oozing another wave of fresh blood. “(Y/n) definitely is. _Definitely_. Because… because then what am I? How am I supposed to be a leader, for everyone here, when I can’t even make sure my most precious person is safe?”

“You _are_ a leader, and you always did the best you could. But we aren’t invincible, and none of us saw the ambush coming. So… these kinds of casualties are beyond us. You know that.” And yet, as Iwaizumi reminded Oikawa of this, the emblem adorned cap was crushed in his fist, moisture starting to line his eyes as well.

There was a silence between them as the world moved on around them. Sergeant Yahaba was somewhere, and they could faintly hear him barking orders to keep an eye out for any more enemy forces while searching for whoever was missing. Nearby, Private Kindaichi and Private Kunimi were resting near a fire, pondering if the rest of their squad were safe from the attack. There was murmuring around the camp saying “How dare those Karasuno bastards try and pull this on us… We’ll show them whose boss by the end of this goddamn war.”

“—kawa… Oikawa!”

Iwaizumi heard the voice first and nudged the colonel who had fallen into deeper thoughts.

Hanamaki came stumbling out of the tightly woven grove of trees. He was panting, clearly distressed and with an important message.

“She… back there…” his words came out between labored breaths. “Mattsun found her.”

With no more words, Oikawa’s eyes shot to look into his; disbelieving but wanting it to be true all the more. Although nameless, he knew that he was talking about her, _(Y/n)_. With the quick sweeping of his arm, Hanamaki had the colonel and his stern looking major following behind in brief but long strides.

“Mattsun? You still there?”

Several hours had passed since sundown, and the thick forest gave little aid to where any direction was. Matsukawa yelled back a response, and the group blindly wandered around. It didn’t take long for them to stumble into a clearing. Although seasoned with years of experience, his eyebrows were knit with worry as they locked eyes. One glance down, and Oikawa’s heart nearly dropped to the forest floor.

You were rolled onto your side. Damage was done, and damage was _bad_ ; not the worst, but you certainly weren’t in _good_ condition. As Oikawa approached, Matsukawa saluted before scooting to the side for him.

“Mostly second-degree burns, but some parts are bad enough to be third-degree… I think she might’ve been pretty close to a shell because…” As Matsukawa trailed off, Oikawa’s gaze traveled downwards. He nearly lost what little food he had stomached previously—Iwaizumi did actually have to swallow down the rising vomit. The expanse of your leg was marred by shrapnel. From large wounds where the cloth of your pants were already saturated by crimson, blood was dripping. Most smaller cuts and openings had already pooled blood, and it was at least clotting.

Oikawa’s pulse quickened when he heard you cough, sputtering up blood to get precious air into your lungs. Your breathing was heavy, and your limbs quivered under the prolonged pain.

“(Y/n)?” Oikawa spoke softly, a mere whisper amongst the commotion that remained of the attack.

“… damned cowards better be running when they see me with a scalpel…”

All four officers exhaled a breath they had forgotten to let go of. If you were speaking that way, then there was no doubt that you’d be fine. Oikawa’s hands gravitated toward yours. As he slipped his fingers into yours, careful to delicately evade the burnt areas, he drew you closer to his lap. Matsukawa disappeared into the thicket, likely to find another nurse or doctor who actually knew what they were doing.

Oikawa wasn’t a man who believed in the gods, but at that moment he would eternally thank whichever higher power had spared you.

You wheezed, fighting for breath and the strength to speak. Your dilated pupils darted around, finally realizing that Oikawa and the other familiar officers were gathered around.

“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t you guys be at the camp?” Another cough interrupted you. “They’re probably in chaos right now.”

Oikawa pulled you up—as gently as he could at least (you did wince quite a bit)—and pressed his face to your chest, your neck, wrist, cheek, forehead. Anywhere that he could tell and know for sure. “You’re fine. You’re… you’re still alive. Fuck whatever’s going on at the base. Screw this stupid war or whatever.”

Iwaizumi cleared his throat a bit, a subtle reminder of Oikawa’s position in the military.

“…abandoning this war, or abandoning camp, getting discharged, whatever the hell it is… then whatever sort of chaos doesn’t matter. As long as it’s for you, then it’s okay.”

With the arm that you could still bear to move, your reached and ran your fingers down his back. You repeated this, and under your touch, you could feel Oikawa shaking. Soon enough, there was a steady stream that flowed from where Oikawa had buried his face into your neck; it stung a bit, but only enough that you bit back a hiss.

“That’s… you shouldn’t just up and out of the war,” you laughed to lighten the mood, but he remained clung tightly to you, sniffling. “But… I appreciate that. Maybe one day, after this is over, we can live somewhere together. Somewhere nice,” you coughed again, throat burning. “Someplace where we won’t have to deal with all this blood and bullshit. Where there’s no winning or losing…”

Oikawa only cried harder.

**Author's Note:**

> this is actually one of the shortest fics i've ever written! i'm still having a hard time writing fics that are quick with closure, so please bear with me ;;;;


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